Is the U.S. more concerned with placating kings and despots than giving support to fledgling pro-democracy movements? For Algeria’s Le Quotidien d’Oran, columnist Kharroubi Habib criticizes Secretary of State Clinton for placating the Moroccan king while on an official visit by failing to meet members of that country’s February 20 movement, and then while visiting Algeria, for meeting with members of civil society that no one could recognize.
For Le Quotidien d’Oran, Kharroubi Habib writes in part:
If she had received them, Clinton would have been exposed to a view of the situation in Morocco that would have contradicted the one developed by the U.S. administration, which is given to understand that the Kingdom is successfully implementing democratic change and reform of the monarchy, and that parliamentary elections will follow in their wake. It appears to us that in adopting this stance, the U.S. secretary of state judged that a meeting was unnecessary, since in the absence of representatives from the February 20 Movement, it would lack credibility in the eyes of the Moroccan public.
This deviation from the official program was also likely made to avoid annoying the royal palace, for whom the February 20 Movement is a bête noire [black beast]. This is more than likely, as Hillary Clinton could hardly have been unaware that it would have displeased the royals if she had invited opponents who are committed to the reforms granted by the royal palace to meet her during her visit to Rabat. For in the event that she had decided to keep her meeting, Mohammed VI had planned to absent himself from the kingdom during her stay.
What one needs to remember here is that when it comes to Morocco, Washington wears kid gloves and is concerned about the sensibilities of the monarch. In Algiers, Hillary Clinton took a different tack, knowing that the Algerian authorities would be “allergic” to whatever their foreign guests uncovered by speaking to other parties.
The strangest thing about her visit to Algiers is that the people introduced by Mrs. Clinton as representatives of Algerian civil society were unknown beforehand, even to the national press. Of course the American side would reject any accusation of meddling laid against them following this baptism. But that wouldn’t invalidate the charge.
READ ON IN ENGLISH OR FRENCH AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
